


Safe and Warm

by CatKing_Catkin



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, M/M, Pointless, Post-Canon, Romantic Fluff, Sharing a Bed, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-24
Updated: 2016-09-24
Packaged: 2018-08-17 03:26:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8128625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatKing_Catkin/pseuds/CatKing_Catkin
Summary: Barnaby is still getting used to all the ins and outs of sharing a bed with the man he loves. For example, trying to decide whether to get up in the morning and make breakfast, or give in to Kotetsu's desire to cuddle him until lunch.





	

Kotetsu really could be so _soft_ , when he wanted to be.

You’d never know it to look at him. He was all angles and lines and lean, rangy muscle. Not to mention that he could vacillate back and forth between staggering destructive potential and truly alarming clumsiness. He had once tried to sign an autograph and gotten the pen run over by a car as a result, after all. He really hadn’t picked up the nickname “Crusher For Justice” for nothing. He was loud, obnoxious, pushy.

Right up until the point where he wasn’t.

Right up until the point where he looked at you like you were the only person in the room. His eyes could light up like stars and shine affection like lamps, leaving you feeling warm and acknowledged and important. Then there was the way his smile could spread slowly across his face like a cat teased out of hiding, or else the way it could emerge all of a sudden like the sun from behind a cloud after a storm.

Perhaps most importantly of all, Barnaby would never have guessed upon first meeting Kotetsu that those same hands that had tied monorail tracks into knots could be so, so gentle. Now that they shared a bed, now that he passed every night with Kotetsu’s fingers carding tenderly through his hair or stroking lazy patterns along his back, apparently for no other reason than the sheer pleasure of touching him, Barnaby appreciated that fact wholeheartedly.

And then there were moments like these. Mornings like these, in fact.

The light of the rising sun peeking through the curtains fell across Barnaby’s face and slowly roused him from his peaceful slumber. Even then, even before he opened his eyes, the first thing he knew was that he felt rested and content.

The reason for that probably had something to do with the other man in the bed with him.

Kotetsu was a warm, solid line at Barnaby’s back. He had an arm around his lover’s waist, holding Barnaby against him even as he continued to doze. As Barnaby struggled to open his eyes, as he made his way slowly back into the waking world, he was piercingly aware of every point of contact between them. Kotetsu’s hand had somehow slipped beneath his shirt as he slept, so that his partner’s long, strong fingers were splayed against his stomach. The fingertips of his other hand were just barely resting against Barnaby’s hair, and he felt Kotetsu’s breath ghosting against the back of his neck as his bedmate breathed steadily. And if he closed his eyes and held his breath, Barnaby thought he could even feel the steady, living beat of Kotetsu’s heart against his back.

He did so, and he smiled, and he wondered at how dramatically his fortunes had changed in a few short years. Back then, he had been a man consumed with the need for revenge, manipulated and _abused_ in ways he still scarcely dared think about. He had been held back from ever, ever truly connecting with people, just for the sake of keeping him under a monster’s thumb…

There were still bad days, as he tried to come to terms with that. As he tried to figure out what it meant to live his own life. There were still bad days, but the mornings like these made them far easier to bear.

Barnaby thought he could have been content to be held close like this for hours. But his growling stomach had other ideas. He couldn’t see the clock from here, but the angle of the sunlight through the window told him that it must be close to breakfast time. Kotetsu was still deep asleep, though. If anyone was going to get food ready, it would have to be him. Pancakes sounded like not a bad idea…

He made to rise, made to pull away, only to gasp softly as the arm around his waist unexpectedly tightened a little.

“No,” Kotetsu mumbled, sleepy but stubborn.

Smiling, Barnaby let himself be drawn back down onto the bed. Kotetsu sweetened the deal by trailing soft, lingering kisses all around the back of his neck and along his shoulder where the collar of his shirt had been dragged down a little. “You’re warm,” he murmured softly, without lifting his lips from Barnaby’s skin. “S’nice.”

Barnaby laughed a little at the contact, squirming a bit in Kotetsu’s grip and feeling something pleasant and fluttery settle into his stomach. The drowsy affection that lay thick and plain in the older man’s voice felt like it was filling up him up with butterflies.

But those did nothing to take the edge off his desire for breakfast. “I’m _hungry_ ,” he protested gently. He half turned in Kotetsu’s grip to look at him. “Aren’t you?”

“You bet,” Kotetsu agreed, smiling lazily. But instead of rising, he leaned forward and caught Barnaby’s lower lip gently between his teeth, tugging lightly. Barnaby couldn’t help but turn the silent request into a proper kiss. He melted against the man he loved for a few long, sweet moments of lips meeting and breath mingling, until his stomach growled again. Then he rested his hands against Kotetsu’s chest and, just like that, his partner responded to the equally silent request to stop.

“One of us has to get breakfast started,” Barnaby carried on, as though he hadn’t been interrupted. “And it’s obviously not going to be you.”

He almost couldn’t keep a straight face at how ridiculous and, somehow, how adorable Kotetsu looked when he pouted like that.  “Five more minutes.”

“No.”

“ _One_ more minute?”

Barnaby leaned in close and nuzzled his face against Kotetsu’s neck. But then he pulled away once more, and didn’t allow himself to be pulled back again. “I need my coffee. And I thought I’d make pancakes. IF you wanted.” They were the first thing he’d learned to make after mastering fried rice, and he’d had plenty of time to get good at them since then. Kotetsu had certainly proven willing to eat them as often.

Sure enough, Kotetsu finally released his grip, though not without a little more good-natured grumbling. “Well…I _guess_ so…”

Not without some reluctance, Barnaby pulled away from his lover and got up from the bed. Kotetsu immediately rolled over to sprawl across both his _and_ Barnaby’s sides, and drew Barnaby’s pillow towards his face. Barnaby couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of him, but that laughter faded to an easy, fond smile. Kotetsu was a man who could grumble and pout like a child, who unashamedly enjoyed stealing his pillow like a dog just because it smelled like Barnaby, and who still couldn’t always be trusted to handle other people’s pens.

Yet when he smiled, Barnaby knew what it was to feel safe and loved. And when Kotetsu held him in his arms, Barnaby slept without nightmares. Those strong, gentle hands had never failed to reach out to him, to soothe him, and all in all he knew he would never have the words to express how much he loved this man who was his partner now in more ways than one.

Coffee and pancakes might do to start with, though.

“I’m not carrying you into the kitchen again,” Barnaby said, as he retrieved his glasses from the bedside table.

“So mean,” Kotetsu replied, his voice muffled by Barnaby’s pillow. “Such a mean Bunny.”

“Maybe.” Barnaby shrugged carelessly and turned away to head towards the door. “But you love me anyway, right?”

As he laid his hand on the doorknob, Barnaby felt himself hesitate for the barest fraction of a second.

But Kotetsu, as always, proved that he had nothing to fear. “Yeah,” he answered. And when Barnaby glanced back, it was to see that his partner had lifted his head from Barnaby’s pillow and was smiling at him like he’d hung the moon. “I love you.”

It was a monumental effort to resist temptation and keep going towards the kitchen, after that. But Barnaby had some practice in managing as much, by now.

 


End file.
